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Bird flu 'could kill 150m people'
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| St_Andrew |
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4292426.stm
| quote: | Last Updated: Friday, 30 September 2005, 08:35 GMT 09:35 UK
Bird flu 'could kill 150m people'
A flu pandemic could happen at any time and kill between 5-150 million people, a UN health official has warned.
David Nabarro, who is charged with co-ordinating responses to bird flu, said a mutation of the virus affecting Asia could trigger new outbreaks.
"The consequences in terms of human life when the pandemic does start are going to be extraordinary and very damaging," Dr Nabarro told the BBC.
Bird flu has swept through poultry and wild birds in Asia since 2003.
It has killed huge numbers of birds and led to more than 60 human deaths.
"It's like a combination of global warming and HIV/Aids 10 times faster than it's running at the moment," Dr Nabarro told the BBC.
The UN's new co-ordinator for avian and human influenza said the likelihood that the Asian virus could mutate and jump to humans was high.
Because it has moved to wild migratory birds there is a possibility "that the first outbreak could happen even in Africa or in the Middle East", he warned.
The comments came as agriculture ministers from the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) endorsed a three-year plan to combat the spread of the virus, and pledged $2m to fund research and training.
Dr Nabarro stressed he would be working hard to control bird flu through contact with farming communities and markets where birds are sold and looking at the migration of wild birds.
He said the number of deaths from any future influenza pandemic would depend on where it started, how quickly it was discovered and the kind of response they got from governments.
"The range of deaths could be anything between 5m and 150m," said Dr Nabarro.
"I believe that the work we're doing over the next few months will make the difference between, for example, whether the next pandemic leads us in the direction of 150 or in the direction of five. "So our effectiveness will be directly measured in lives saved and the consequences for the world."
The appointment of Dr Nabarro is an indication of how seriously the UN is taking the threat, the BBC's UN correspondent Suzannah Price says.
In his new role, he is meant to ensure that the UN has a co-ordinated response to bird flu and that it helps global efforts to prepare for any human flue pandemic, our correspondent says. |
And why are not our politicans doing more? Really! 150 million is quite a lot of ppl... Bet our politicans will all be playing stupid (or perhaps they simply are a bunch of dumb asses) when it happens, telling us how no one could know beforehand... |
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| Yoepus |
Put what about all the birds??
How many birds will perish?
Ohh! The birdity! The birdity! |
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| Sunsnail |
| I read this in the National Geographic. It said that in a worse case scenario it could actually kill over 300million |
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| Gmoney part II |
I have a different view on this. First of all, I don't think the bird flu is going to do a goddam thing. If we start worrying about this then we might as well worry about aliens landing and and exterminating us.
Second of all, evolution and the existence of the human race is based on survival of the fittest. So even if it kills 150 million people, those people probably deserved to get toasted in the first place. As long as it doens't kill me I really don't care. |
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| St_Andrew |
| quote: | Originally posted by Gmoney part II
I have a different view on this. First of all, I don't think the bird flu is going to do a goddam thing. If we start worrying about this then we might as well worry about aliens landing and and exterminating us.
Second of all, evolution and the existence of the human race is based on survival of the fittest. So even if it kills 150 million people, those people probably deserved to get toasted in the first place. As long as it doens't kill me I really don't care. |
what if you are not the fittest? You might very well die. So perhaps you should care? |
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| Sunsnail |
| quote: | Originally posted by Gmoney part II
I have a different view on this. First of all, I don't think the bird flu is going to do a goddam thing. If we start worrying about this then we might as well worry about aliens landing and and exterminating us.
Second of all, evolution and the existence of the human race is based on survival of the fittest. So even if it kills 150 million people, those people probably deserved to get toasted in the first place. As long as it doens't kill me I really don't care. |
The flu from WW1 is very similar to the bird flu we are facing now. With adjusted populations the bird flue could actually kill 100s of millions of people if a pandemic occured. Keep in mind that flu viruses mutate like crazy. The bird flu of today will not be the bird flu of next week |
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| Gmoney part II |
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
what if you are not the fittest? You might very well die. So perhaps you should care? |
If I am not the fittest then I will accept my death from the bird flu. Right before I do, however, I will get an 8 ball of cocaine and 5 strippers.
No seriously, I have faith in my being one of the fittest. Baring some kind of strange occurence, (like a tree falling on my head) I will be ok.
Plus, you can always hole yourself up in some mountain cave somewhere and wait for everyone else to die from the bird flu and then walk out and you will still be ok. |
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| Lepanto |
| Anyone else gets the feeling this is the end of the world? |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
| quote: | Originally posted by Gmoney part II
No seriously, I have faith in my being one of the fittest. Baring some kind of strange occurence, (like a tree falling on my head) I will be ok. |
hmmmm, id like to know why you think youre one of the fittest, coz its plainly obvious that youre behind the intellectual evolutionary 8-ball. |
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| MrSquirrel |
This will sound harsh, and pretty uncaring of me. But this is one of my thoughts on it.
Nature has systems in place to control populations of species for the survival of the ecosystem. The human population has risen to a level where some kind of relatively quick decrease in population is, unfortunately, necessary. A pandemic disease is the most likely way for this to happen. We can do everything in our power to combat these illnesses, but another will come soon to attempt to take its place. At some point in the not too distant future, we are going to have a global pandemic. It may be the bird flu, it may be SARS, or it may be something much more dangerous like Ebola or the Hunta virus. It is going to happen.
It is no accident that these "new" possible pandemic virus strains are showing up in southest Asia first. The highest density of human population is in that region, thus it is the most "efficient" place to begin.
I do not take pleasure in having this opinion. But, if you look objectively at the situation, you will see what I have.
Yes, we should do all we can to contain outbreaks of this, or any disease. But we need to realize that at some point, the big one will hit, and no amount of preparation is going to save everyone. :sadgreen:
MrS |
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| St_Andrew |
| quote: | Originally posted by MrSquirrel
This will sound harsh, and pretty uncaring of me. But this is one of my thoughts on it.
Nature has systems in place to control populations of species for the survival of the ecosystem. The human population has risen to a level where some kind of relatively quick decrease in population is, unfortunately, necessary. A pandemic disease is the most likely way for this to happen. We can do everything in our power to combat these illnesses, but another will come soon to attempt to take its place. At some point in the not too distant future, we are going to have a global pandemic. It may be the bird flu, it may be SARS, or it may be something much more dangerous like Ebola or the Hunta virus. It is going to happen.
It is no accident that these "new" possible pandemic virus strains are showing up in southest Asia first. The highest density of human population is in that region, thus it is the most "efficient" place to begin.
I do not take pleasure in having this opinion. But, if you look objectively at the situation, you will see what I have.
Yes, we should do all we can to contain outbreaks of this, or any disease. But we need to realize that at some point, the big one will hit, and no amount of preparation is going to save everyone. :sadgreen:
MrS |
Ehm, what you basing your claim that humanity has reached a too high population on? As far as I know we are not near that level yet... |
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